Perdido 03

Saturday, December 13, 2014

NYCDOE Offers Professional Development From Microsoft

I got this in an email:

Become a Microsoft Innovative Educator and Facilitator

Open to: All teachers interested in integrating technology tools and sharing them with 75 or more educators annually

Opportunity at a Glance: The
Microsoft Innovative Educator PD program will help you integrate
technology tools to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom.
This free workshop will certify you as a Microsoft Innovative Educator
who can deliver training to your colleagues about the range of free
Microsoft tools available to teachers and students.

Event Date: Tuesday, January 13 and Wednesday, January 14 (Lunch will be provided)

For more information: Visit the Microsoft Innovative Educator website.

I'm almost tempted to sign up to be a "Microsoft Innovative Educator," except I'm loathe to lose class time that close to the Regents exam and I'd probably have to get heavily sedated in order to get through the whole thing without a major Al Pacino moment.

Why the hell is the NYCDOE advertising this garbage?

Seriously.

Is Microsoft getting money for this?

Or is this some "philanthropy" from them?

In the end, it doesn't matter if the DOE is getting this for free or paying Microsoft for it.

The real problem is, they're offering this garbage that's taking teachers out of classrooms in order to learn what Microsoft says is "innovative technology" and calling it "professional development."

Just another indication of how pushing "professional development" for teachers is really often just a way of making it look like they're improving teaching and learning while they're doing nothing of the sort.

I know this is a busy time of year for everyone so I wanted to make sure you saw our last email and are aware of the 30% promo we are currently offering and the new features we just released. If you buy now through 12/19/2014, you will receive 30% more IDs for the same package price and your IDs won’t expire until 12/31/2015.

This is truly a great time to get started with Cogmed. For more information, click here.

I will be out this week but please feel free to reply to this email and one of our team members will get back to you with answers to your questions and additional information.